Chapter 5: Encroaching Darkness
It was autumn and I found myself in front of a gaggle of pre-teens trying to teach them how to hold a staff. The okuls run by the faiths usually contracted out the teaching of the basic defense to the younglings to an experienced adventurer. Well they said that but what they really meant was the cheapest one they could get away with hiring.
I didn't blame them though as self-defense was a very small part of an okul’s curriculum. Only those children who were joining the politia or the military were required to take the course, for everyone else it was optional. How little value the okuls of the city held for this course was shown by the fact that they had pooled together to hire a single adventurer to act as instructor for all the okuls in the area. That meant I had nearly sixty kids under my wing in this batch alone.
I was being unfair, the faiths ran the okuls at considerable expense to themselves. Their stated mission of producing functioning and productive members of society while noble failed to mention their prime objective of spreading their teachings to young and impressionable minds.
Okuls were the only means by which the children of the impoverished could acquire a well-rounded education to be able to function in society. All the basics were covered like reading, writing, basic language, simple arithmetic, etc. The bare minimum to get by.
While this model of education did help the lower strata of society, it did nothing to cover the vast gulf between them and the higher rungs. The well off did not rely on okuls. They mostly hired private litterators and started their children off at a much younger age. Later these children would then be sent to the shkolas in the provincial capitals for higher education while most of the children from the okuls would be forced to become apprentices on the count of not being able to afford a shkola’s fees.
Very lucky few may catch the eye of a wealthy patron and be sponsored to get admitted to a shkola. This favour usually had life altering strings attached. A further infinitesimally small number of talented children with documented ability in mana manipulation were taken out of the course entirely by the imperial mage council to be taken to the capital to be inducted into their order.
Humanity had drawn the short straw when it came to the mystic arts. Only one in ten humans had the potential to qualify as a mage. This was the lowest among all the intelligent species on the planet. Even prana users were a rarity amongst its numbers. Hence why such individuals were so highly valued.
As I guided my young students through various forms with the staff, my eyes were drawn to the familiar freckled, copper-haired girl struggling to imitate my movements. She was the primary reason I had gone the extra length to accept these duties. The copper-haired family was the only link to my old friend, Aniansi, that I knew of. I desperately needed to reconnect with her, to piece together the fragments of my past.
There was no one else I could think of who could be a bridge to my past life. Maybe our other squad mates to some extent, but they hadn’t been as close to me as Aniansi had been. Regardless, the point was moot; I did not know where to find them either way.
The realization that it was over fifteen years into the future from where I had expected to be had shook me to my core. I had absolutely no recollection for such a large time gap. What had happened in that time span. Had I confessed to my friend and secret crush. Had I gone back home to scatter my father's ashes to the wind. Were the rest of our remaining squad alive and well?
Feeling helpless and in the dark, I had briefly contemplated trying to track down my old phalanx for anymore information I could glean to find Aniansi and our remaining squad mates before deciding that was a phenomenally unwise idea. It was possible that I had been honorably discharged from service, but it was equally likely that I could be charged as a deserter. Given my luck, the latter scenario seemed far more probable.
Although I vowed to myself that if I had made no headway by winter’s end, I would have no choice but to risk it. But that would be a desperate last resort only, something to keep in mind for later when all other options had been exhausted.
Looking back in hindsight, I couldn’t believe how obtuse I had been to miss such obvious signs, such as Aniansi managing to join the knight order and then getting promoted to the rank of knight commander. There was no way that could have happened overnight. She must have worked long and hard to receive such an honour.
Or the fact that a new Emperor sat on the throne because the old emperor had abdicated his throne in favour of his son. But that fact wasn’t my fault entirely, as that detail had been overlooked by me because of royalty’s insistence on giving the son their father’s name.
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In the mean time, I had progressed to demonstrating a few thrusts with my staff while keeping my eyes on my pupils trying to clumsily imitate me. I felt like sighing as I could see almost all of them were panting hard and had difficulty holding their staffs up. Deciding to give them a break I sat down in front of my class with my staff on the ground.
Most of my class eagerly followed suit collapsing on the ground. Although I noticed the copper haired girl, Ceres trying to imitate me with a straight back posture not many followed her lead.
“In combat in general it’s not skill, power or stamina which usually decides victory. It's generally something much simpler, a person's reach is almost always the critical factor” I lectured using my staff as a display prop.
“After all, if you can engage your opponent without giving them the opportunity to retaliate you already have a near insurmountable advantage”
I slowly got up to my feet and went through a few more complex katas with my staff which were showier and more designed to impress an audience. Seeing I had my students rapt attention I continued my lecture.
“Which is why staffs, spears and halberds make such formidable weapons even in the hands of people with very little training. That is what I intend to teach you all to be proficient in using.”
I then sat down again in front of my audience before continuing “In our world reach will almost always determine victory. But don't make the mistake of thinking that a person wielding a weapon with a longer range will always triumph over his opponent.”
As I said that fist sized golden red flames erupted in my hands earning me excited oohs and ahhs from my captive audience. I then started juggling them in my hands trying to keep my students interested with memorable and flashy displays.
“It would be safe of you to assume that you will be well in range of a mage or prana user when they are anywhere close to yours. So always know which battles to pick and which to bow out on, younglings. Selling your lives cheaply will not earn you any favors” I warned trying to convey how serious I was.
My gaze swept over the assembled mass only to find many of them no longer paying attention to me since I wasn't doing anything eye catching anymore. I sighed, trying to keep the little rugrats attention was proving to be exceedingly challenging.
Hopefully they took my words to heart or time the cruelest of mistresses would teach them. And yes I was talking about my puppet master, who had remained ominously silent since the parade’s departure.
A glance at the sundial which revealed that my time with this batch was nearing it's end anyways so I decided to wrap things up early.
“So, if you children don’t have any more questions for me, we will continue this lesson next time” I asked, not really expecting any.
I waited patiently for a query but was disappointed noticing that most of my class had devolved into chattering groups.
“Ok children form a column by height. Shortest first and the tallest amongst you last” I ordered my pupils fairly confident they knew their position in the column by now.
I had an internal chuckle at seeing most of the boys being sequestered in the front of the group. The girls had started to hit their growth spurts, but the boys had yet to hit theirs.
I made sure to give a few rowdier students the stink eye wordlessly warning them that they would be getting extra laps if they didn't behave themselves. Discipline wasn't in my purview unfortunately.
I then proceeded to guide the group through the training field which was located at the very edge of the count’s estate.
The count very ‘generously’ lent out the use of this land to the okuls for the physical training of the younglings. No doubt because it would make scouting for fresh talent easier for him.
Speaking of the Count reminded me that whatever Aniansi had done after she left her little get together with Ceres and her mother had somehow snowballed into the Count getting censured by his higherups. How that played out remained a mystery to me.
The grapevine *cough Leera cough* said the Count was also forced to pay restitution and damages to the family. Personally, I didn't enjoy people's misfortune, but this time would be a rare exception. Considering the many stories, always unsubstantiated of course about the Count’s excesses he had had it coming.
As I was guiding the children to where their litterators were idly gossiping amongst each other in the shade of the old benian trees I decided to walk besides Ceres.
“Ceres, wasn’t it?” I asked, after getting a hesitant nod from her I continued “I was very impressed by your form and footwork, have you been trained before?”
She gave a shy nod before responding “Yes sir. Whenever my aunt visits, she makes sure to show me simple exercises and how to properly hold various weapons. My momma insists I do those exercises every day.”
“Well keep it up little one, your efforts show. Out of curiosity how long have you been doing them?”
“It's been nearly three summers now” she replied hesitantly, unused to talking with near strangers but making the effort for her instructor all the same.
I nodded encouragingly at her as I wandered back to the front of the column. That would mean she would have started training at nine summers. That was the age when most noble families would start training their children who would be joining the knight order as squires. So that meant Aniansi was also grooming Ceres to be her squire.
I guess the why mattered little here, if my dearest friend was juggling multiple complex responsibilities, it would be my pleasure to lighten her load whether she realized it or not. It was the least I could do.
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I had decided to turn in early for the night in my rented accommodation even though I had an uncongested schedule for tomorrow. I just taught classes two days a week and tomorrow was free. Grog and his family on the other hand had been taking fewer missions as looking after their baby boy was proving much more challenging than anticipated. The boy was a literal miracle, perfect in every way even though he was a hybrid.
I needed to catch up on sleep as I had been surviving on less than five hours of it for the last week. My reoccurring nightmares had gotten worse with time. I was unable to recall them now like I could my scrambled memories but whatever they were left me drenched in steaming sweat.
Even though it was autumn and it started getting chillier at night I quite liked the cool night breeze as it soothed my body which naturally ran much hotter. I had left the wooden window partially open which also allowed the gentle moonlight to enter and frame my form.
After tossing and turning for a good while I managed to find a comfortable pose and start lightly dozing off. If I had kept my eyes open, I would have seen my moon shadow growing to blot out all the light in my little room. Then three pin pricks of pulsating light which could have almost been eyes open in the blackness to stare at me balefully. If I had seen those great and terrible eyes staring at me from the void my room had become, I would have fled the city never to return.